Vehicle accelerator devices provided with reaction-force-applying mechanisms have been known, e.g. in Patent Document 1, in which a reaction force is applied to a pedal-side arm from a reaction-force-applying mechanism in accordance with an amount by which the pedal-side arm is depressed or other information.
The vehicle accelerator device known in Patent Document 1 includes a housing mounted on a vehicle body, a pedal-side arm pivotably supported in the housing, a pad provided on a lower end of the pedal-side arm and used for depressing the pedal-side arm, and a reaction-force-applying mechanism for applying a reaction force to the pedal-side arm. The pedal-side arm extends downward from the housing. The reaction-force-applying mechanism is disposed between the housing positioned above and the pad positioned below, and is incorporated into the housing. The reaction-force-applying mechanism includes a motor for generating the reaction force, a reduction gear for reducing the rotational speed of the motor output, and a motor-side arm mounted on an output shaft of the reduction gear. The motor-side arm is a member for applying the reaction force generated by the motor to the pedal-side arm.
A brake pedal is proximal to the accelerator device. Depending on the type of vehicle, the accelerator device may be disposed near the wheel house of a front wheel. Therefore, the accelerator device needs to be able to be easily disposed in a non-interfering manner even when the device is laterally proximal to the wheel house or the brake pedal. Specifically, a high degree of freedom is required in regard to where the accelerator device is to be disposed.
However, because the motor and the reduction gear of the reaction-force-applying mechanism are connected in a lateral or vehicle width direction, the size of the reaction-force-applying mechanism is large in the vehicle width direction. Therefore, the entire accelerator device has a large size in the vehicle width direction. In addressing this situation, it has been suggested that the lateral size of the reaction-force-applying mechanism be reduced; however, merely reducing the width of the reaction-force-applying mechanism results in complicating the configuration of the reaction-force-applying mechanism. Accordingly, there is scope for improvement.